Frightened China activist: 'Let me leave'

Blind dissident says abandoned by U.S. – want to depart with family on Clinton's plane

Published: 05/03/2012 at 1:35 AM

(Daily Beast) I’ve known Chen Guangcheng for more than a decade — he’s been through intimidation, beatings, jail, and extralegal house arrest—but through it all I never sensed he was scared. Now he’s scared. Chen, whose case has escalated into a bilateral crisis that threatens to dominate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing this week, was weeping as he talked to me over the phone from his hospital bed.

Chen says he now wants to leave China as soon as possible: “My fervent hope is that it would be possible for me and my family to leave for the U.S. on Hillary Clinton’s plane.”